CH 22

C22: I don’t greet people at social gatherings

“So? What do you need a favor for?”

“I haven’t had a chance to say hello to the princess yet.”

Well, I didn’t see any lines since the princess came in.

“So?”

“I didn’t say hello, but I’d like to pretend I did. I’m not very good with princesses, you know.”

Mist replied, looking into the distance as if she missed something.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I think she wants to say hello to the princess without seeing her. I see, so it’s a win-win situation for me, because I’d like to pretend that I said hello to her without seeing her too.

“Okay, what do you have in mind?”

“Nothing.”

Mist said matter-of-factly.

“I can’t do it then.”

“It’s your job to figure it out.”

“Seriously……”

How do I do that?

Mist is smiling and laughing next to me as I ponder the situation. I don’t know what’s so fun about that…….

I looked around the princess and saw that the guards at her side were taking notes.

“What are they writing Mist?”

“Oh. That’s probably a ministerial protégé, taking note of whether someone is royalist or ministerialist by the way they greet the princess.”

“I’m in trouble again.”

“That’s right. We want to keep our neutrality, so we can’t let them write us in that memo.”

I see. That’s how it works……. If so, we can’t let them write us.

“I got a little idea.”

“What?”

“Just a simple, simple move.”

I explained my plan.

“Hmm. Sounds good. Let’s try it!”

☆☆☆☆

As it turns out, it was successful.

First things first, I asked Mist, “I heard the princess’s clothes were torn, where were they torn?” “Where were they torn?” She asked someone she knew. Then the rumor started to spread and Alice went out of the room to check the tears in her clothes.

That’s when I made contact with the guards.

“I greeted the princess, but I forgot to add something to the gift list. Where is the princess?”

“She went back to change her clothes once. Excuse me, may I ask your name?”

“Yes. My name is Chris Dreschord, Viscount Dreschord. Good day.”

As we were having this conversation, I heard a loud crash outside the window, as if something had broken. Everyone turned to look at the sound, but I didn’t look back at all.

I had used my magic to create a stone near the window that was the same size as the outer wall, just barely big enough to be hidden by the curtains, and asked Mist to drop it at a certain time.

While the guard turned to see what was going on, I picked up his memo. I then dropped the note the guards were holding in a prominent position after he saw them talking to the princess.

“What the hell is this? Isn’t this a memo about whether someone is potentially a ministerialist or a royalist?”

As expected, it was soon found out, and when this came to light, the other nobles refrained from greeting the princess for fear of getting caught up in the royal faction war. In other words, Mist now had a good reason not to greet the princess.

“I’ve succeeded.”

I walked up to Mist with a sense of relief, like the hero of a romance novel.

“Hmm. Not bad!”

“Heh.”

At this trivial exchange, the girl gave a peculiar chuckle, and then opened her mouth with a slightly serious look on her face.

“To be honest, I thought it would fail. The plan itself wasn’t bad. But I didn’t think the guards would be skilled enough to not notice that the note had been snatched.”

You made me do it because you thought it was going to fail……Seriously, this girl is scary.

“Well, I’ve directed the sound in such a way as to create a blind spot in taking that guard’s notes.”

If it wasn’t for that and the blinding speed and accuracy I’ve developed to escape the attacks of Yulis and Macbeth, I would have been in danger.

“You are indeed Viscount Dreschord. I’m starting to want you after all.”

“What?”

“Yes! Let’s get married and form a marriage alliance.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about the details! You stopped using honorifics for quite some time now, and that means you’ve forgiven me, right?”

It’s true that I may have let myself get carried away. But if I make a marriage alliance with one of the three families, the other two families will attack me the next day! And more importantly, how could I marry such a scary woman?

“No, you might be letting on a little, but that’s before we even get into that!”

“Before that, does that mean I’m not attractive?”

Her eyes are puffy, and she looks up at me with her big, cherry-red eyes. The fruit that had grown in abundance seemed to be plumping up.

“Ugh, you’re cute and very attractive, but no!”